Longer walking paths proposed along Neponset River

Sunday

Jul 25, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 25, 2010 at 6:37 PM

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is considering five options for linking the Neponset River Trail and the Neponset Esplanade. The existing 2.5-mile Neponset River Trail now runs from Pope John Paul II Park in Dorchester to Central Avenue in Milton. The planned extension will connect Pope John Paul II Park to the Neponset Valley Parkway in Hyde Park.

Dennis Tatz

About 45 people tramped through the woods along the north side of the Neponset River recently to get an up-close look at options for an extension to the Neponset River Trail.

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation is considering five options for linking the Neponset River Trail and the Neponset Esplanade. The existing 2.5-mile Neponset River Trail now runs between Pope John Paul II Park in Dorchester and Central Avenue in Milton. The planned extension to Blue Hill Avenue will open about 7 miles of trail along the Neponset River, connecting Pope John Paul II Park to the Neponset Valley Parkway in Hyde Park.

“I’d like to have access (to the trail),” Donna Dickerson of Milton said. “If it can be designed nicely to come down Capen Street (in Milton), I would love it.”

But another Milton resident, Mary Tarvin, who also took the tour shortly before sunset Thursday, said having the bike and walking paths on the Mattapan side of the river is a better option.

“We would prefer it not come through our neighborhood,” Tarvin said. “They will take trees down and there will be an increase in the sound of traffic.”

Milton Selectmen Chairwoman Marion McEttrick said the paths are a benefit for everyone.

“It opens up the river to people,” McEttrick said. “It’s a big plus.”

Residents of the Capen Street neighborhood in Milton are worried that they’ll lose a natural sound buffer to the nearby MBTA station if the path goes through that area. Some trees will be felled to make way for the new path.

State Sen. Brian Joyce, D-Milton, said he has been a long-time supporter of the project.

“(But) Capen Street is not the preferred path,” Joyce said. “My sense is that there is a path that’s better that will have little or any impact on a neighborhood.”

Deneen Crosby, a DCR consultant and principal with the Boston landscape architecture firm Crosby, Schlessinger and Smallridge, said the project will cost between $3 million and $5 million.

A second walking tour, this time on the south side of the river, is set for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday.

The tour will begin at Riverway Plaza, 90 River St., in the parking lot next to Rite Aid Pharmacy in Mattapan.